Memes, Memes, Everywhere But Nary a Blog to Think Here's a music meme for you.

1. What's one of your favorite CDs or albums in your files? I'll choose Jars of Clay's Redemption Songs.
2. Look up or remember the third line from one of the songs on that CD/album. From the first song: "Plenteous in compassion Thou, blot out my transgressions now."
3. Rinse and repeat as needed.

I'll leave that one to take the blogosphere by storm.

Sherry of Semicolon (whose blog I'm pleased to say is the first hit I received in a Yahoo! Search for "semicolon") has a kiddy-lit meme for us.

3 Children's Books that I Would Like to Live in
3 Schools from Children's Books that would have been Cool to Attend
3 Books that I Like, but would NOT Want to Live in
3 Schools from Children's Books that would NOT have been Cool to Attend

I don't have answers to those questions. Um, The House at Pooh Corner? Um, Hogworts? I think I'm starting to forget everything. Where am I?

Oh, there was a Bible meme a few weeks ago which I unintentionally passed up. I had other things to blog or not blog, I guess, but here it is now.

1. How many Bibles are in your home?
Four, I think. Two are in use. I'm not counting the children's story bibles.

2. What rooms are they in?
Currently, both are in the living room. I think one proppinging up the coffee table . . . just kidding. If you're asking what rooms to the Bibles stay in, I have no answer. They float around.

3. What translations do you have?
Both editions in use are New King James, though they read differently. I think my New Geneva is smoother than Sarah's old Scofield.

4. Do you have a preference?
I enjoy my NKJ. I've read from the English Standard Version often and enjoy it too. I plan to buy an ESV, possibly another New Geneva edition, sometime.

5. Nominate an interesting verse.
This reminds me of something Tim Keller of Redeemer PCA in New York said about verses he never saw on people's walls. One good selection is Galatians 2:3, "But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek." Heartwarming, isn't it?

  ¶ 4/30/2006 10:04:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

This Blog Stinks Earlier this year, M.E. Strauss put together a list for failing in the blogosphere. I want to list all of her "Top 10 Ways to Become a Miserable Blogger," but that wouldn't be good blogging, so here's a teaser. "Keep your mind focused on all of the things you have to do and how little time there is to do them. Check the clock often to see how behind you are in getting them done." That's good advice, that is.

Here's another: "When you finally sit down to write, know you will have writerÂ?s block. Think about it. Talk about it. Then watch the clock."

Yeah, I hear ya. Now, I'm depressed. I think I'll blog a meme or maybe check the stats.  ¶ 4/30/2006 09:49:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Book Design Must Recommend the Book

In fact, I think everything about the book's design should contribute to this goal, not just the cover. Size, binding, paper, interior layout and typography. The quality of these factors serve as clues -- whether the reader realizes it or not -- to how much value should be placed on the book's contents. A book that's worth the effort and expense of good design is one a reader like me will take seriously, for the same reason that a novel will all the hallmarks of careless publication (or even self-publication) never will be.

J. Mark Bertrand comments on a cover design lecture by Barry Moser at the Calvin Writing Conference recently. I agree with him. A book's design should sell it or recommend it to its intended audience. That's why self-published book almost always look wrong. They aren't designed so much as they are assembled. I think a good design on a self-published work would give it 1000% more of chance then other self-published books, but I don't have anything to back that up.

As for bad design, covers like Director's Cut and Dead of Night from Zondervan look cheap to me--remarkably cheap, as if the publisher has cut back the budget. Sometimes I think about designing covers for real or imagined books for posting here, but that would be putting my money where my mouth is, so to speak, and I look like an idiot enough as it is.

Also, I don't think cover design is a readily accessible topic. To give examples:

1. This cover for Hoot is funny, good-looking and appropriate to me, but I'm sure designers could rip it up over the font selections.
   
2. This cover on How Would a Patriot Act? looks good though uninspired. Could I do better?
3. Does Ann Coulter insist on having her photo on the cover of her books? I think something radical, bold, edgy would be better for her latest book, Godless.
4. I think gravitate toward covers like this for blink. Maybe that makes me a minimalist.
   

What ideas do you have on book design or book covers? Any examples jump out at you?

Tags: book covers, design  ¶ 4/29/2006 01:38:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

More on That Later This morning, Scott Simon read a terrific mock blog, as if he had been blogging in the few minutes he might get during the day. Paraphrasing from memory: "Interviewed the Iranian President today. We didn't get into any of that nuclear stuff. He wanted to know what was up with Tom and Katie." Many of blog entries mentioned speaking with someone very big or controversial like this, stating only "more on that later."  ¶ 4/29/2006 01:17:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Coherent and Original Plagiarism The Morning News has a contest for plagiarists, "Sloppy Seconds With Opal Mehta." Your work of fiction must be no longer than 750 completely taken with citations from other works. No imaginary works may be cited and at least five different works must be used. Deadline: May 12.

That's hilarious. I may enter this myself.  ¶ 4/29/2006 10:52:00 AM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

The Lord Controls Publishing Too The Lord is my publisher;
I shall not want.
He makes me rewrite my green manuscript;
He trims my angst-ridden verbiage.
He brews my coffee.
He awakens me with strong prose for His name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through mounds of rejection,
I will fear no editor;
For You write with me;
Your pen and Your Word, they comfort me.

You publish my novel in the presence of my enemies;
My heart overflows onto its pages.
Surely fictitious characters will follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will record their stories for my Lord
As long as I live.

Tags: writing, publishing, poetry  ¶ 4/29/2006 07:42:00 AM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Does Baby Like Da Libwa-wee? Yes? Did you see this cute story of taking the baby to the library? Ella from Box of Books writes in part:

You are early to storytime. Settle the baby on your lap and wait while the other mothers trickle in to the story room, babies and toddlers in tow. They are dressed in business casual – wool skirts, linen blouses, silk scarves, embroidered flats - and belong to the book club that is reading “The Notebook”; that is what they’re talking about. They are all halfway through. Their children are dressed in coordinating striped clothing, which are either brand-new or freshly dry-cleaned. Realize for the first time you have an inch-wide streak of dried snot on your shoulder where the baby has wiped his runny nose. He is wearing one red sock and one walrus sock. Try to hide your snot stain and his walrus sock. Fail.

  ¶ 4/28/2006 10:02:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Stupid and tasteless Have you seen the news of the Harvard student whose first-time novel is accused of plagiarism? Her books are being pulled from the shelf. Terry Teachout adds this comment: "Little, Brown & Co., having been stupid and tasteless enough first to sign a seventeen-year-old author to a $500,000 contract, then to publish a novel by her called How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, is richly deserving of whatever bad things happen to it as a result."  ¶ 4/28/2006 04:42:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

To Conclude Poetry Month I offer these timeless words composed in the white hot inspiration when tongue and technology meet:

I found that common denominator
And in Herod's wake there lacks a worthy crown
Gleam the wisdom of our ancestors...
good A hand from above reached down

Most of this memorable classic was composed by a program designed by Chris Seidel,
Heretical Rhyme Generator.  ¶ 4/28/2006 04:33:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Oh, Let's All Join In! From the NYTimes:

Meanwhile, back in London, Daniel Tench, a partner at the law firm Olswang, was reading the ruling [from Justice Peter Smith on the Da Vinci Code lawsuit] and noticed something odd about the type. "At first I thought it was a mistake," he said on Wednesday. "It's not usual practice for a High Court judge to issue a ruling in which he has hidden an encrypted message."

Not usual, but actual. Justice Smith included a coded message in the first several pages of his ruling. Apparently, everyone must to get in on the secret coding game. [by way of Faith in Fiction]  ¶ 4/27/2006 09:22:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Are We All That Simple? David Long has returned from Calvin College to talk about the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing. His first post is here. This afternoon, he wrote a little about the fear of that which seems elitist:

Marilynne Robinson's plenary speech was a call to arms for artists. The world and much of our culture has decided the populace are idiots who need to be spoken down to. They are incapable of deft, elegant thought and so the issues of the day need to be boiled down into sound-bites. Her response is that this is nonsense. We are created for more and better. Her call is for artists to think of their audience as more intelligent than themselves. If anything, it is an anti-elitist message.

Yes, readers grow all over, in rich and poor soil, and some of us long for beautiful language and deep thought in our fiction.

Mark Bertrand also posts on the festival, and Jared Wilson, who is still avoiding regular blogging, comments on it. Mark says, "Most everyone suggested a desire to see both literary fiction and the kind of 'high genre' stuff you see in the general market, where art and genre meld. And everyone -- editors, writers, readers -- wanted to be able to point to more examples of serious fiction with faith elements. But frankly, it doesn't seem to be happening, or rather, everyone is hoping it will without anyone having to do something about it."

Does that define a market for a new small press? If only I had the business sense to pursue it. Not that I would make any money from it, but if it printed several good books, it may be worth taking on the purgatory of debt.  ¶ 4/26/2006 09:24:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Portrait of a Blog as a Book Do good blogs make good books? Some publishers think so.

Just about any blog writer -- there are 36 million blogs out there, with 75,000 new online diaries added daily, according to search engine Technorati -- is a candidate. "We believe there's a market [for book-publishing services] for every single blogger out there," says Eileen Gittins, CEO of online publisher Blurb.com. "Charles Dickens originally serialized his novels in magazines. We are seeing much the same thing happening today, with blogs."

[by way of Sand Storm]  ¶ 4/26/2006 09:12:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Book Banning Gideon Strauss asks, "If you could ban the books of one author because of their pernicious influence on the young, whose books would you ban?"

He also recommends some fundamental reading for the summer.  ¶ 4/25/2006 05:14:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Prince Caspian May Be Delayed According to Scott Weinberg on Rottentomatoes.com, the next Narnia movie is a bit difficult to pull together. He quotes producer Mark Johnson saying the adaptation "is proving tougher than 'Wardrobe.'"

I almost blogged on this a few months ago. The first half of Prince Caspian is told in retrospect. The four Pevensie children appear in Narnia at the beginning of the book and hear about the current battle and backstory from a dwarf. If you take out the retrospect and begin the movie with the backstory, then you have main characters, with whom the audience is most familiar, arriving in the middle of the movie. In addition to that, Lewis has the four children appear in the wild and take a long time walking to the battleground, and though interesting things occur, it isn't the way movies generally run.

So what can a screenwriter do? Ideas I have are to tell the children's story and Caspian's story from the beginning, starting with Caspian. Give him enough time, perhaps twenty minutes, to establish the Narnian context, the Telmarine conflict, and the danger Caspian faces. Then show the children drawn to Narnia, wondering where they are and why they were called. Switch back to Caspian for a while, and then back to the children until you bring the two together. You could drop Susan's horn or show it used and try to demonstrate in a few seconds that it was the reason the children returned to Narnia. Another possibility is to have Susan's horn blown early in Caspian's story so that the children can begin their part eariler.

But these may not be the reason for the movie's delay. Working out the visuals for giants, talking mice, centaurs, and werewolves may take more time to work out than the problems I addressed.  ¶ 4/25/2006 12:29:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Lots of Coffee Won't Hurt You A joint USA-Spain medical study has shown no relationship between drinking several cups of filtered coffee daily and heart disease; but frequent coffee drinkers showed a tendancy to do other things which are believed to be unhealthy. From Reuters:

The researchers found more than half the women and 30 percent of men who drank six or more cups of coffee a day were also more likely to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol and use aspirin, and were less likely to drink tea, exercise or take vitamin supplements.

  ¶ 4/25/2006 12:20:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Does the Big Apple Still Have It? Lenore Skenazy asks if Manhattan is still as cool as it used to be. Maybe not, because the cost of living is driving out all the artists, poets, and young people. Of course, Terry Teachout is still there, so I suppose it's cool enough. [by way of ArtsJournal.com]   ¶ 4/25/2006 12:01:00 AM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

All Shakespeare, All Year Yesterday being Shakespeare's birthday in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, his home town has launched a year-long festival during which all of Shakespeare's works will be performed. Deborah Shaw, the director of the Royal Shakespeare Company's festival, has coordinated 17 foreign theater teams to cover all the plays on her schedule.  ¶ 4/24/2006 01:16:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Looking for Feedback Got any comments on the status quo at Brandywine Books or ideas on how to make this blog better? Please let us know. We want to hear from you. Feel free to praise and complain about anything here. Feel free to praise or bad mouth other blogs as well, examples of great blogging, examples of horrid blogging. Give us your thoughts. Thank you.  ¶ 4/22/2006 11:59:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Help! Mom! Hollywood's in My Hamper! By Katharine DeBrecht In the second of her Help! Mom! Series, author Katharine DeBrecht tells the story of two little girls who want to earn money for bicycles but pay attention to advice out of Hollywood instead. They hope to earn the money through baby-sitting, but the more they follow the lifestyle directives of Daisy Smears, Rayonna, and Barbara Buttersand, the fewer baby-sitting opportunities they have.

It’s funny stuff, written for preteens and teenagers who know something about pop culture. Though the caricatures are accurate and humorous, I wonder if two of the performers chosen were a little old for young readers. Do teenagers readily identify with Barbara Streisand? Perhaps one of The Dixie Chicks would have been better. But her age is part of the joke. One of her first lines is “Do you mean you don’t know who I am?!” They guess she’s from a toilet cleaner commercial.

I suspect if you or your kids have gotten hold of some leftist propaganda in story form, you’ll get a kick out of the Help! Mom! books. Even if you haven’t, you may enjoy them for the artwork and satire. I reviewed the first book here, and several more reviews are available on the Active Christian Media website.  ¶ 4/22/2006 05:05:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Who Can You Trust? By Howard E. Butt, Jr. Here’s a good potential for a small group discussion. Who Can You Trust? addresses the essence of living and why we have trouble trusting people. Author Howard E. Butt, Jr. claims betrayal is the root of our relationship problems. In fact, betrayal was the sin Eve committed against God in the Eden which cursed the world.

“Betraying and being betrayed by abuse, desertion, neglect, or rejection lie deep within our personal and collective being,” Butt writes. “We betray others because of our personal experience of feeling betrayed. And we do this whether such betrayal actually took place or not.”

Real and imagined betrayal breaks down our trust of individuals or people in general, making specific relationships and common business difficult. Couple this with self-deception, that we believe ourselves to be far more pure than we are, and we grow a judgmental perspective, unwilling to forgive and willing to condemn others. Butt believes many Christians have “a too-shallow sense of our sinfulness.” He says there are sins we have personally listed as egregious, and if we avoid those, we believe we’re in the clear, free to condemn those whom we see as more sinful than we are. If we had an honest view of ourselves, we would have compassion on those who have disgraced themselves in society’s eyes. How to address our feelings of betrayal and gain a good understanding of ourselves makes up the counseling portion of the book.

The writing style varies (like my own), but plenty of quotes from C.S. Lewis and other strong authors add interest to the reading.

Howard Butt has years of experience working with people on and off the job. He helped his father build the H.E.B. grocery store chain and is a leader in applying the Christian faith to workplace decisions.  ¶ 4/22/2006 04:59:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Lord, Help Me But Not Just Yet I knew Andree Seu's latest column would be good when I first saw it, but I only just read it and now must link to it. Blogging's in my blood, I guess. Read "Next Tuesday" for a beautiful meditation of joylessness.  ¶ 4/21/2006 09:14:00 AM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

A New Bible Code Joe Carter, editor of World Magazine's blog, points to a story on a mafia leader's use of the Bible as a code for crime. Has anyone written a novel with this idea yet?  ¶ 4/21/2006 09:08:00 AM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Hanks Read the Other Stuff Since the blogosphere will continue to buzz about Tom Hanks for a while (shhh, have you heard that he will star in a film adaptation of a novel by Richard Russo called The Risk Pool? Everyone's talking about it. Huh? What other movie?), let him blog this little bit of info I learned about Hanks from my sister.

From his profile on IMDB:

On the CGI used in The Polar Express: "It's the same stuff they used in that 4th Lord Of The Rings Movie. Or was it the 19th Lord Of The Rings Movie? You know, the one where Boldo and Jingy travel across the bridge? I don't know, I don't know their names. When I watch Lord Of The Rings I just think 'someone got their finger stuck on the word processor for too long.'"

From Cranky Critic:

When I first started reading I read all the books of Leon Uris, because they were kind of like these non fiction, full of turgid melodrama at the same time. Chaim Potok, the man who wrote "My Name is Asher Lev," I've read almost everything that he wrote. But growing up there was the "Catcher in the Rye" thing. That's a big thing to go through. I take credit for never having read that Tolkien trilogy. I read "The Hobbit" in 5^th grade, but got 20 pages into the Trilogy and went "Yeah. Right. Frodo, Bilbo, Middle Earth. Yeah, thank you." And I was done. So I never bothered with the rest of it. I'm actually taking claim for not having read something, which I'm very proud of. I never read the trilogy.

In other news, do you think it's good to joke about major plot twists in a popular novel months after it's been released? I ask because while searching for a little more on the what Tom Hanks likes to read or maybe his favorite books, I found a little animation that made a joke of the big secret in the most recent Harry Potter book. Now, I knew part of this secret already because I was on the fringe of a brief conversation about the book which went something like: "Have you read the new Harry Potter? Yeah, it was great, but [major spoiler revealed]." How long has it been since the release, almost a year? Is that long enough to assume everyone who cares will know what happens?  ¶ 4/20/2006 11:00:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

I Can Turn to No One Else Yesterday was unusual for me. I went downtown to sit for a couple hours in the city courthouse and then deliver a few minutes of testimony in a criminal trial. A heavy storm washed over us during that time. The courthouse’s rooftop windows gave us a nice view of it. I didn’t hear any hail, which was forecast, but the rainfall was enough to call out a flood barrier before the door at Greyfriar’s, where I went after testifying. I picked up some Panama Boquette beans, my third choice after seeing that Tanzanian Peaberry and Papua New Guinea tribal beans were out of stock that morning. I prefer a heavy body in my coffee, so I usually get the Indonesian varieties and periodically try to understand the subtlies of the lighter kinds, which is what the Panama will be. I don’t have a cultivated palette for coffee yet.

Long before I was called, two women came out of the courtroom to cry in the hallway. Two women in Sunday dress bawling a few meters from my bench. I wish I could have comforted them; but I’m naturally reluctant, even with acquaintances. Of course in this case, I had no role in their lives.

My testimony was simple enough, a tiny fraction of the prosecutor’s argument. I just happened to be the one to find the body on the roadside on the way to church. I saw in the news the defense attorney’s statement that the body was put there in order to be found. Perhaps, he plans to accuse someone, known or unknown, of framing his client. I don’t know anything really. I just hope justice is served.

In the Bible, Paul says the Lord doesn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind; yet I am often afraid. It’s irrational, I know, but I feel it still. By spending time in court and listening to cops and detectives talk shop while waiting to be called, I have picked up details for worry (not to mention Iranian saber rattling). I should move from this house soon, I say, but where is a safe home? Is anywhere safe, when you think of it? But I can’t rest in locks and locations for safety. The Governor of the Universe is my protector, and if he take me or my family through horrible times, I am safe only under his wing. I have no one else to turn to.  ¶ 4/20/2006 10:35:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Fresh from Baton Rouge Our Girl in Chicago praises Stephanie Soileau's "The Boucherie" and Soileau herself in light the story's inclusion in an anthology of the past decade, Best of the South. She quotes from the story too. Do you buy or borrow short story anthologies like this? I do.  ¶ 4/20/2006 08:44:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Photo by Jack McRitchie Photographer Jack McRitchie says of his photo, Suntory Museum, on Photo.net, "Secretly snapped at (fittingly enough) the Cartier-Bresson Exhibition." Maybe it's the designer in me, but I like the bold sections and blankness of photos like this.  ¶ 4/20/2006 12:24:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

A Good Romantic Comedy Will Duquette reviews Wodehouse's Jill the Reckless, a romantic comedy set in the world of New York's musical comedies, which as Lars recently pointed out, Wodehouse had a large part in provoking to life. This part of the Wodehouse works was bound in hardcover last year by the good people at Overlook Press.  ¶ 4/19/2006 11:16:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

On This Day On this day in 1775, the American Revolution began. The "shot heard around the world" was fired in the Battle of Lexington on April 19, near 5:00 a.m. And the greatest country in the modern world began to fight for independence.

Also on this day in 1928, the last volume of the first Oxford English Dictionary was published. Writer Steve King states, "the general public is encouraged to submit quotations to the OED in support of their effort to find the earliest and best usages." And the world breathed easier.  ¶ 4/19/2006 07:34:00 AM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

What Do Guys Want to Read? I learned of this site for encouraging readership among "guys," which appears to be school-aged males. The author, Jon Scieszka, says boys often are required to read stories they don't like and they are told that what they like to read isn't real reading. To compensate, Mr. Scieszka recommends books by Richard Scarry and William Steig for little guys, Roald Dahl and Eoin Colfer for the older but pretty young set, and Brian Jacques and Ray Bradbury for the oldest set as well as many more authors.  ¶ 4/18/2006 10:24:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

All Too Common Grounds So I was talking to Judy the other day about how I just don't blog anymore, and she said I really need to tell people when I don't blog because they could happen on the site, you know, just "surfing the online web" as they say nowadays, and people could come to the site and wonder when the next post is coming and waste a lot of time refreshing the page hoping another post will come because as everyone knows . . . Okay, I'll stop the joke here. Thank you for your attention.

How many coffee houses/bars/shops/shoppes in this country are named Common Grounds? My Yahoo! search for "common grounds coffee" tonight yeilds 11,900 results, pointing to places in Burlington, WI; Lexington, KY; Gainsville, FL; Altoona, PA; and Matton, IL among others. Not nearly as creative a name as my favorite local coffee house, Greyfriar's on Broad Street, but names are everything. Is there a Common Grounds coffee shop near you?  ¶ 4/18/2006 09:40:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Art Grows Back "To introduce a new play only six weeks after another has been banned is also a way to speak one’s piece to the government. It proves that art and liberty can grow back in one night under the clumsy foot which crushes them." - Victor Hugo, 1833, regarding his play, Lucréce Borgia, which he wrote quickly after his play, Le roi s'amuse, was banned on suspicion of ridiculing the French nobility.
  ¶ 4/18/2006 08:20:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

French TV This quarter's Read This selection from the Litblog Co-op is a French novel called, Television. They say it's about a writer who turns off his TV to do better things, but the thing keeps popping up. They've posted an excerpt here in which he soaks a TV screen with glass cleaner "until the entire surface was covered by a coating of mobile, foaming liquid, slowly slipping earthward, intermingled with grime and dust, in sluggish, oleaginous flows, that seemed to ooze from the machine like the residue of programs past . . ."

It could be pretty funny in the absurd vein, and the recommendation comes just before Turn Off Your TV Week.  ¶ 4/17/2006 11:59:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Narnians are Pro-Literacy Disney is using its Narnian imagery to promote literacy in connection with the DVD release of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and Literacy Awareness Week this month. - phil  ¶ 4/16/2006 10:56:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

FDR on Freedom o' speech Speaking of Bartleby.com, today's home page quote is on freedom of speech.

Freedom of speech is of no use to a man who has nothing to say and freedom of worship is of no use to a man who has lost his God. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Funny, having nothing to say hasn't hindered the blogosphere much. We could argue about whether a man ever does lose God. Certainly he may lose a god worthy losing, but I doubt the one true God can ever, truly be lost.  ¶ 4/16/2006 04:47:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Easter Wings "LORD, who createdst man in wealth and store,
Though foolishly he lost the same,
Decaying more and more,
Till he became
Most poore . . . "

Do you remember George Herbert's beautiful little poem, "Easter Wings," formatted like the wings of two larks? You can read it on that praiseworthy literature resource, Bartleby.com.  ¶ 4/16/2006 04:40:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Tolstoy's Resurrection Sherry, while trying to post once an hour this weekend, recommends Leo Tolstoy's Resurrection as a type of holiday reading. This is one of the books I bought a long time ago out of an affection for Tolstoy and never read.  ¶ 4/16/2006 04:34:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Should Perverted Blogs Go Unchallenged? What are the limits on free speech? We all know there are common sense limits, such as not yelling “fire” in a crowded theater, but beyond that, what moral limits, if any, restrain us from speaking? I ask because I think our modern culture is working me over to believe there aren’t limits. Free speech or free expression reigns supreme, or so I’m told.

I have three examples, the third being my chief reason for blogging on it.

1. This week, I heard that the British press was outraged that most of the American press gave golfer Tiger Woods a pass when after The Masters he reportedly complained, “once I got on the green I was a spas.” I haven’t used the words spaz or spastic in years or heard them used, but I never knew anyone would take offense to them for being derogatory references to someone with cerebral palsy. Apparently, some do. Mr. Woods has since apologized.

2. Earlier this month, executives for Borders bookstores, including Waldenbooks, decided against stocking the current issue of a magazine which reprints four of the cartoons that inflamed certain willing Muslims a while back. I don’t understand why they believe these cartoons, which are available through many outlets (not that they are worth seeking out), are too dangerous to distribute, but they aren’t taking up the cause of free speech, are they.

3. Stacy Harp, who leads Active Christian Media (formerly Mind & Media Publicity) for whom I do some book reviews, is urging Google to drop a Blog*spot site dedicated to pedophilia or what we could call “child predators.” She’s gotten a few interviews over it too. See links on her blog, starting with this interview with Adam McManus. Google has been unresponsive to the complaints, but as Jared Keller points out, they may be contradicting themselves a bit if they take up a freedom of speech defense for keeping the blog active. (Of course, the site could lurch to life again as another blog with Google or another free host or a paid host. Now if Google did not index the site for searching, that would be a ban.)

Are all of these essentially the same or is the third example different because it involves a crime? I think I’ve always thought of America’s freedom of speech as our ability to advocate or discussion any idea under the sun, but if we act on certain ideas, we could run afoul the law, which must be grounded in a logic based on certain accepted moral judgments. We appear to live in a day when fewer people accept those judgments; that’s the battleground for the culture war. Is it acceptable to discuss and advocate perverted ideas like pedophilia? Is that within the bounds of free speech?

I know. The voices arguing for unlimited freedom of expression have shown themselves to be rank hypocrites. For example, teachers and students at Yale were too outraged to listen to a message delivered by an alum, because years ago he typed a racial slur (unintentionally and later apologized); but they appear to have no problems with a former and unrepentant member of the Taliban studying with them today. Outrage over racism or tyranny knows its bounds, I suppose.

But pedophilia is a horrible crime, and the internet has become the perpetrators' tool for encouraging each other and finding victims. Should we stand by when men who would violate the minds or bodies of children through the internet converse online? I don’t think so.

Though blogs and websites are public, we can believe we are in our private room while interacting of others or posting our thoughts for the world. And in our privacy, we can feel unaccountable, just as I’m sure players of a certain twisted online game feel when they role-play. It’s just interactive pornography, isn’t it? No harm done?

Do you remember that old story from the proverbs about what a man thinks in his heart?

Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

In short, we act out of who we are. Imagination is not vain, even if we do not act on our fantasies; but those who do act will be acting on them. Don’t we all understand this?

Anther illustration: One time, some temple leaders asked Jesus why he and his men didn’t follow the ceremonial cleanliness laws. He replied by calling them hypocrites, because they strove for external cleanliness but neglected cleaning their hearts. They were, he said, like whitewashed sepulchers, dead within, clean without.

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks and the body acts. We can’t pretend that discussing or play-acting the abominable will keep the base urges in some men at bay. The more we tolerate this and other pornifacations, the more blame we must share for future victims.

I believe Google is taking feedback through this contact form.

Update: The blog no more.  ¶ 4/15/2006 11:59:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Learning Publicity Warren Kelly has a review of How to Be Your Own Publicist by Jessica Hatchigan, which he says is a useful book, not too basic, not too technically advanced, teaching the reader about press kits, press releases, and to beware of publicity stunts which overshadow the object of the publicity. I wonder if it addresses the grammar and prudence of long sentences, which as I'm sure you know and have no need for me to remind you though I will since I'm typing this post or as it were have the floor at present, I occasionally have need to craft--shall we say--long sentences, usually when I have nothing to say.  ¶ 4/15/2006 05:03:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Later Today on BwB I plan to write several posts today, by which I mean I hope perhaps in vain to blog today, but now I am going out to pick up a Friday edition of the Wall Street Journal, in part b/c of this article teaser by Mr. Teachout on the uselessness of art. Check back today for more of the insight posts you are accustomed to read on Brandywine Books.  ¶ 4/14/2006 11:31:00 AM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Poet Laura McCullough The Hub, a New Jersey newspaper, has a feature on Poet Laura McCullough with a few interesting thoughts on poetry and writing. She says:

My education in the craft of fiction certainly shows up in my poetry, and my knowledge of poetry definitely affects my fiction in ways I couldn't predict," she said. "I'm less of a realist than I was, less interested in the mimesis [trying to re-create reality] and more on metaphor.

  ¶ 4/10/2006 09:33:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Nobody Wants to be a Librarian According to this article, The Bureau of Labor Statistics has identified librarians as one of five jobs which will lack qualified applicants in the near future. "In addition to the librarians expected to retire within the next decade, interest in the profession is waning among younger workers."
  ¶ 4/10/2006 09:19:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Plagiarism Lawsuit Fails The London judge has seen the light and ruled accordingly in the suit against Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Justice Peter Smith declared, "Dan Brown has not infringed copyright. . . . Even if the central themes were copied they are too general or too low a level of abstraction to be capable of protection by copyright law." Judge Smith also stated:

It would be quite wrong if fictional writers were to have their writings pored over in the way [The Da Vinci Code] has been pored over in this case by authors of pretend historical books to make an allegation of infringement of copyright.

The E! Online report points out the curious detail that the two authors were not actually suing Brown. They were suing Random House, the publisher of their "pretend historical book."

In other news of fictional history, The Gospel of Judas, another Gnostic fantasy, has been translated anew and trumpeted by National Geographic. If you are on a quest for the historical Jesus, you can pass up this one, which, unlike the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, was not written by its namesake.  ¶ 4/07/2006 04:14:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

The Greatest Screenplay From Reuters--"The Writers Guild of America has named Casablanca as No. 1 on its first list of the'101 Greatest Screenplays.'" Over 1400 scripts were nominated. Runners-up are listed in this report.  ¶ 4/07/2006 04:09:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Jane Kenyon Today Today's selection for National Poetry Month by the Academy of American Poets' website is from Jane Kenyon's The Sorrow Psalms. It's brief, beautiful reflection on remembering someone departed, called "What Came to Me."  ¶ 4/05/2006 11:47:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

1001 Library Books #1 - The Holy Bible
#1001 - Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History

And in between? The Online Computer Library Center has the 2005 list of library books judged to be worthy for inclusion in library collections. [Thanks to Petrona and Books, Inq]
  ¶ 4/05/2006 11:27:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Not Afraid "UNDERTAKERS, hearse drivers, grave diggers,
I speak to you as one not afraid of your business."

The opening lines of "To Certain Journeymen," by Carl Sandburg in his Chicago Poems collection (1916).

Speaking of acting fearlessly, today I learned of a movie, United 93, about the 9/11 hijacked plane whose passengers fought the terrorists. Again, I'm optimistic that this one will be good. It certainly has good source material. - phil  ¶ 4/03/2006 09:28:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

The Invisible Library I think I've blogged on this site before, but it's National Library Week, so I must blog on it again. The Invisible Library lists "imaginary books, pseudobiblia, artifictions, fabled tomes, libris phantastica, and all manner of books unwritten, unread, unpublished, and unfound." They are especially interested in completing their list of Wodehouse's fictional books. What was the book Bertie was reading when he first met Jeeves at the door? Was it Types of Ethical Theory? I remember it was something weighty.- phil  ¶ 4/03/2006 12:15:00 PM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |

Enjoy the Month April is National Poetry Month, and this week is National Library Week. In honor of the day, here's a line from Frank D Sherman's "The Library:" "And these tomes all should serve to show/ How much we write—how little know."

Inspiring, what? It goes along with the start of Professor Denis Donoghue's article in the current New Criterion, "Defeating the poem:"

When I started teaching, at University College, Dublin many years ago, I urged students to believe that the merit of reading a great poem, play, or novel consisted in the pleasure of gaining access to deeply imagined lives other than their own. Over the years, that appeal, still cogent to me, seems to have lost much of its persuasive force. Students seem to be convinced that their own lives are the primary and sufficient incentive. They report that reading literature is mainly a burden. Those students who think of themselves as writers and take classes in "creative writing" to define themselves as poets or fiction writers evidently write more than they read, and regard reading as a gross expenditure of time and energy. They are not open to the notion that one learns to write by reading good writers.

- phil

  ¶ 4/03/2006 12:29:00 AM ;   Criticize, Remark, Praise |